E 458 
.4 

.Y72 
Copy 1 

1 



V'vll^":^'-^ 


f^^'^'^-^ 





.^sse^fcrvvt 



^^r; 



S^|;;, 



r:..?^ 






ZJtS^ 



mi 





''T ;. ''V ■."'- ::-^'^'-\ ^'^■■.-'■- ■• 







r^" 






; 


i^HBIp*"* 


m 


t 




■cr 


r 






' 




X, 


t 


'}3B^ 




1 






1 


EnHP^ 











./D 



Kf^^ 



'mm> 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

f ' 

I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ 



. ■'n 



INDESTRUCTIBILITY 

OF THE AMEHICAN UNION. 



A LECTURE, 



By HARRISON PERRY YOUNG 



le(iverei^ Ibefore ilxe farlier fraternity, 



IN TEMPLAR'S HALL, BOSTON, MASS. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BOSTON: 

R. H. BLODGETT, PRINTER, 117 HANOVER STREET, 

1864. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 

By HARRISON PERRY YOUNG, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



INDESTRUCTIBILITY 

OF THE 

AMERICAN UNION 



Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

For some time past we have had a desire to 
address the citizens of Boston upon the present 
situation of this government and the importance and 
necessity of preserving the American Union, — the 
land of our birth, — 

" The land of the free, and the home of the brave." 

Since the commencement of our national difficul- 
ties ; since the hostile attitude of South Carolina was 
first assumed, and the defiant Secession ordinances 
were adopted by the Cotton States ; since the boom 
of the cannon has shaken the ramparts of Fort Sum- 
ter, and the cry of ivar has sent gloom and despair to 
many a lone fireside, has the question been asked, — 
Can the American Union fall ? Will the experiment 
of a republican government prove a failure in the 
United States of America? Is it possible that man 



4 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

is incapable of self-government? But we presume 
that those interrogations have received the emiylmtic 
negative from many, — yea, many a loyal son of 
American freedom. Nay ! The American Union 
cannot fall ; the Republic shall exist through ages. 
God has endowed man with the qualifications for self- 
government. Oh, what an absurd theory, — too gross 
to require comment ! O weak and blasphemous 
man ! could you be more presumptuous in the face 
of your Creator than to question his power, wisdom, 
and justice, by supposing that he has brought into 
existence races of human beins^s, with endowments 
inadequate to govern themselves, — with endowments 
insufficient to secure their happiness and well-being ? 
Is it not totally repugnant to profound reasoning to 
conceive the idea that man — the noblest work of 
God's creation — should be called to being, totally 
depraved, and incapacitated to control himself? 
After acknowledging the wisdom, power, and good- 
ness of the Omniscient Being, could we suppose that 
his noblest works were so defective, — that he has 
failed to possess his beings with those fiiculties which 
are essential to the greatest terrestrial enjoyments? 
Most assuredly we could not. Then, as the first of 
these are experienced in the capacity of self-govern- 
ment, it would seem folly to question the abilities of 
man to govern himself. This is a part of our nature : 
it is the direct gift of God. 



THE A3IERICAN UNION. 5 

The desire of self-control — the disposition of the 
human being to reject that which is inimical to his 
own will — manifests itself at an early period of our 
existence, and continues to expand as the ensuing 
years develop and enlarge the powers of the mind. 
The babe in its mother's arms is seen to manifest 
feelings of displeasure and resentment for certain 
actions of the parent, which are in nonconformity to 
its tender will. The daughter becomes indifferent to 
the admonitions of her mother, and assumes a surly 
countenance if she is forbidden the fashionable arti- 
cles of dress, and prohibited attending the various 
pleasure parties. The son is not unfrequently angry 
with his fiither when warned of approaching danger, 
and restrained from those paths of vice which his 
footsteps would intuitively follow ; or when curtailed, 
by the domineering spirit of the parent, in the free 
exercise of those rights and privileges which reason 
has shown to be his. Hence, he '' Longs for one and 
twenty," when he will be a free man, — free to think, 
S]3eak, and act in conformity to the dictates of his 
own conscience, whether it bring weal or woe. 
Nothing excites the angry passions so quickly, and 
prepares resistance, — nothing will make the cry of 
vengeance louder than wdien the declaration is uttered, 
— You shall do this, or that! Then it is that the 
whole powers of the inborn soul are summoned to 
action, and the fiery darts of vengeance and retalia- 



b INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

tion are madly clasliiiig hither and thither, demanding 
restitution. It is a principle of human nature to 
submit to no arhitrary ])oivei\ 

NoAvhere do we drop so many tears of sympathy 
as upon the pages of history. Nowhere do the throb- 
bings of the heart so frequently "Bid you God- 
speed " as when we behold a people, intuitively moved 
b}^ a just appreciation of their natural rights and 
privileges, breaking asunder the bands of tyranny, 
and fearlessly pledging their lives, their fortunes, and 
their sacred honor in support of those great princi- 
ples ; . " that all men are created free and equal 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights, and that among these are life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness." No thought 
gives greater inspiration to the soul ; nothing is 
more sublime than to imagine them drawing their 
swords and fearlessly marching to the battle-field, 
resolved that their fate shall ])e Liberty, or Death! 

This, my friends, is the vital principle of Republi- 
canism. It is the essence of Liberty. Hence, the 
reasons are easily deduced why a few people should 
bid farewell to one of the wealthiest and most pow- 
erful nations upon the globe, and trust their hopes 
and fortunes upon the raging deep, when 

" The breaking waves dashed high 
On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky 
Their giant branches tossed. 



THE AIHEEICAN UNION. 7 

" And the heavy night hung dark 
The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 
On the wild New England shore." 

They sought a land where they could worship God 
according to the dictates of their own consciences, — 
a land where no tyrant's frown should embarrass the 
freedom of thought, speech, or action. And hence 
it was that they were ready to engage in a war with 
one of the mightiest kingdoms of earth, rather than 
submit to a government in wdiich they could have no 
voice, no representation. Thus, it is readily in- 
ferred why mankind, in all ages, have been prone to 
resist oppression and revolutionize nations, — why 
kings and emperors have been assassinated, and the 
most powerful monarchies crushed to atoms. 

The history of the w^orld is replete with these facts. 
Is it not because the God of our fathers has implanted 
wdthin our hearts a love oi freedom and a resistance 
for aught that may oppose the exercise oi free-ioill9 

Then, after admitting the justice of the Creator 
(which I presume none of my hearers would call in 
question), — that the doctrine of freedom and equal 
rights is a part of our nature ; that it is the direct 
gift of God, — does it not follow that a republican 
form of government is the most natural, the most 
just, the most stable and enduring of earthly institu- 
tions ? 



8 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

Truly, the friends of despotism have told us that 
the doctrine of equal rights and the natural capacity 
of man for self-government is an absurdity ; and that 
history has shown the republican government to be 
an abortive failure, in the examples of Greece and 
Rome. The republic of Greece, say they, — the cra- 
dle of arts, arms, and liberty at one time, — fell to ruin 
when her patriots, poets, and orators were in the ze- 
nith of their glory. Eome, they tell us, who had 
conquered the whole world and proclaimed her re- 
publican institutions eternal, proved her incapacity 
for self-government, and sunk to the abyss of self- 
destruction. But they have failed to pause for the 
interrogations, — Where are the monarchies that were 
reared in their stead? What was the fate of the 
third, fifth, and seventh kings of Rome? Did they 
prove themselves invulnerable beings, ordained by 
Providence as the special dictators and usurpers of 
Roman liberty? Were they successful in chaining 
those legions of human beings in an everlasting state 
of bondage, ignorance, and disgrace, overshadowing 
them with the clouds of kingly terror, and command- 
ing submission by thunderbolts of imperial rage? 
'No, no; the laws of Nature are more powerful than 
the sceptre of a Grecian or Roman monarch. The 
desire for liberty and knowledge, which is implanted 
in every breast, expands and moves the noble hero 
forward to vindicate his rights. The curtains of des- 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 9 

potism are withdrawn, and as the brilliant sun of 
light and liberty gradually ascends the political hori- 
zon, the nation comes forth to demand its rights, and 
take vengeance upon the usurper. The king is assas- 
sinated, and the monarchy crumbles to atoms. Thus 
it was with Greece and Kome. 

Were it necessary, we could go back to the ruins 
of Babylon, and ask the despot what has become of 
that mighty empire. What can you say of Egypt, 
— of the Assyrian monarchy and the Persian empire ? 
Will you inform us of the fate of the Macedonian 
kingdom ? They have all sunk to the vortex of de- 
struction. Gone forever ! Do not tell us, then, 
that the voice of history favors the monarchical gov- 
ernment ; that it overthrows the doctrine of equal 
rights and the capacity of man for self-government. 
But since it proves the instability of despotism, we 
are led to inquire the causes for the various fluctua- 
tions between the two different forms of government 
in the history of nations. During one generation we 
see a prospei'ous monarchy. The king sits upon his 
throne of pearls and diamonds, basks in every sun- 
shine of luxury, and holds the fortunes and lives of 
his subjects in his hand. A few years glide silently 
by, and this king and his monarchy are known only 
in history. A mighty republic has sprung to exist- 
ence, which flourishes for a while and passes away. 
With its expiring groans comes the imperial reign 



10 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

again, which, in like manner, is limited in its exist- 
ence. While, therefore, we must acknowledge that 
the republic has taken its turn with monarchies and 
despotisms, we will contend that its decline, in no 
case, was the immediate result of inahility in a people 
to govern themselves. 'Nny, a more scrutinous 
investigation of the subject will convince the un- 
prejudiced mind that it was a just retribution of 
Providence for the failure or indisposition of a people 
to fill that standard of intellio-ence and hio^h-toned 
morality for which they had been endowed. This 
fact, we think, needs no elucidation, — that the su- 
premacy of a government, the grandeur and glory of 
a nation, can be maintained only by the wisdom, 
patriotism, and virtue of its citizens. When the 
people begin to grow insensible to the blessings of 
freedom, and degenerate in natural and moral worth, 
the declension of their government must inevitably 
follow. Thus it was with the nations of antiquity. 

But again (if further arguments are necessary 
upon this point), it has been alleged by despotic 
friends that the passions and prejudices to which 
man is by nature sul)jected w^ould alone disqualify 
him for the government of himself; that they would 
lead him into many gross errors of judgment, which 
would too often prove detrimental to the happiness 
and well-being of his fellow-creatures, — and hence 
the indispenscibility of kingly power. For the sake 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 11 

of argument, suppose that we should yield this point 
for a moment, — that man is incapable of self-govern- 
ment. Who, we ask, is hy nature qualified for the 
responsibility of controlling both his own actions 
and those of his fellow-men ? Who are the immacu- 
late dictators, the kings and emperors ordained by 
Nature ? Is any human being free from the influence 
of all passions and prejudices? Where is that indi- 
vidual who has the presumption to claim perfection, 
— to claim a natural right for controlling the for- 
tunes, the actions, the conscience, and the lives of 
others ? 

This reminds me of an argument that I recently 
heard used in your State Legislature, by one of the 
members of the House of Kepresentatives, on the 
occasion of a bill being brought forward to modify 
the laiv pertaimng to the reading of the Bible in 
public schools. No Legislature has a right to enact 
a law, or code of laws, that will interfere with the 
eonscientious scruples of any of the people, or em- 
barrass the freedom of thought and speech upon any 
subject of religion. It is inconsistent with all teach- 
ings of moral science, and openly warring upon the 
spirit of Christianity, to suppose that true religion 
can be advanced, and the salvation of a people se- 
cured, by arbitrary legislation, by uniting the affairs 
of Church and State, or by fre and sword. Man is 
a free agent, and must " work out his own salvation 



12 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

with fear and trembling." However wise may be 
your legislators, however profonnd their knowledge 
of law and philosophy, — however pious your theo- 
logians and clergymen, and however thoroughly in- 
structed in the various branches of Christianity, — 
none have a right to dictate or fetter the consciences 
of others in anything pertaining to religion. Of 
course they have a right and, we may say, a dutij, to 
advise and instruct ; but nothing can supersede moral 
suasw7i. No theologian, no sectarian divine, has a 
natural right to supplant the conscience or religious 
inclinations of his fellow-men, save by mild influ- 
ences and profound logic. Hence, we find that nei- 
ther talent nor acquired wisdom can be a sufficient 
pretext for one person to control the lives and for- 
tunes of others. 

Another gross delusion into which the adversaries 
of republicanism have often been emerged is the 
idea that birth and icecdth make social distinctions. 
What could be more absurd in theory than to con- 
clude that the youth of giant intellect, endowed with 
all those patriotic and philanthropic propensities 
which render humanity noble and great, because he 
is a child of obscure parentage, a son of poverty, 
and has " earned his bread by the sweat of his brow," 
is less entitled to the throne of England than that 
youth known by you all as "the Prince of Wales," 
from the fact that the latter chanced to be the homely 



THE AMBEICAN UNION. 



u 



progeny of a queen, has rolled in princely luxury, 
and is enabled to spend his three millions of dollars 
at pleasure, visiting the neighboring continents and 
exhibiting his verdant donkeyship to an excited popu- 
lace ? Would any honest and unprejudiced American 
contend that the haughty millionaire who has been 
raised, supported, and enriched by the labor of the 
black man, and who never had the experience of one 
day's hard labor in his life, is better qualified for, 
and more entitled to, the executive mansions at Wash- 
ington than Abraham Lincoln, simply from the cir- 
cumstances that the latter, one day, "earned his 
bread by the sweat of his brow ; " that he " mauled 
railsV Certainly, no intelligent citizen could be so 
unjust as to make this the basis for political distinc- 
tion. Hence we have learned that "Democracy is 
no levelling principle." It would never attempt to 
equalize men in those things in which Nature has been 
pleased to make them unequal. It is useless for us, 
at this time, to repeat what has so frequently been 
affirmed, and as often admitted, — that there are 
certain inherent differences existing among men, both 
respecting the intellectual faculties and the moral 
worth. We know that the natural endowments of 
mankind are very unequal. We also know that the 
degrees of development of the various faculties are, 
by circumstance or accident, rendered more unequal. 
Then, as a natural consequence, the influence exerted 
2 



14 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

upon society by difFerent individuals must also be 
very unequal. You might have one neighbor whose 
erudition was almost unlimited, whose acquaintance 
with law and philosophy was profound, and whose 
judgment, in questions involving constitutional and 
legal rights, you could almost risk your life upon; 
yet, at the same time, you knew him to be a man of 
no moral worth. He would flatter you in your 
presence, but would assail your character, with oaths 
of profanity, in your absence, if, perchance, by so 
doing, he might at any time add a few pence to his 
purse. On the other hand, though, you could have 
a neighbor whose natural endowments were compara- 
tively small, and whose intellectual culture had been 
almost entirely neglected ; but whose manly deport- 
ment, whose just dealings in both public and private, 
w^hose tender sympathies and Christian benevolence 
would often banish your pride and melt your eyes to 
tears. And again there may be another, w^hose 
genius will at times carry your admiration almost 
beyond your control. But what, we ask, can be 
found among social distinctions, to constitute a natu- 
ral right, a just basis, for political power? Ay, 
it is not there ! No such right can exist ! 

Although it is an obvious insult to the voice of 
justice, and in open violation of the teachings of the 
gospel, we see that wealth makes social distinctions ; 
that it influences the public, both in matters of taste 



THE AlVIERICAN UNION. 15 

and fashion, and also in the affairs of Church and 
State. To this assertion we presume many of you 
can testify, even here, in this good and patriotic old 
city of Boston. The weight of the ;purse sometimes 
has a mightier influence than the weight of brains! 
If, for example, a ball must be given to a prince, or 
an ovation to an emperor ; if a committee is to be 
chosen to transact any business for Church or State, 
all subordinate eyes are immediately directed toward 
the ynillionaires, supposing, of course, that the re- 
sponsibility, the profit and honor of the afiair, will 
be entrusted to the " righteous few " who " had not 
expected to he called iipon.^' Thus it is with the 
oflSce-seekers ; and hence, the old saying: "If a 
man has money ^ he can get an oflice." Although the 
existence of social distinctions is quite apparent, and 
would seem to be almost unavoidable, it afibrds no 
argument in favor of the establishment of arbitrary 
power, — no argument against the doctrine of equal 
rights and the capacity of man for self-government. 

Seeing as we do, therefore, the true principles of 
our national character, the natural and just principles 
upon w^hich it was originally constructed ; namely, 
^* That all men are created free and equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness," — seeing the wisdom of its 
founders, the unpopularity of the cause at that time, 



16 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

the unequalled bravery with which they came forth, 
hand in hand, to meet the work before them, and the 
undying valor with which they rallied around the 
staff of Liberty, and achieved the glorious victories 
of the American Revolution ; when we look upon 
the corrupt aristocracy of despotic governments, and 
behold the crimes that are nurtured in their midst, — 
the open violation of man's nearest and dearest 
rights, and the humiliating state of subjection, dejec- 
tion, ignorance, and degradation to which the people 
are continually exposed, groaning beneath a tyrant's 
frown, and living in perpetual dread of a domestic 
insurrection or of foreign invasion ; when we bring 
these considerations home to our own hearts, and 
realize the many privileges and blessings that have 
been enjoyed under the republican government, the 
happiness and prosperity which our ancestors realized 
from its benign influence, and the unbounded bliss 
which it has bestowed upon ourselves and the reeent 
generations, — could we do otherwise than reverence 
such a system of government, casting our sacrifices 
upon the shrine of liberty and equal rights, and trust 
to eternal justice for the preservation and perpetuity 
of these glorious institutions, hoping and praying 
that this government shall never! never! ! never!!! 
see a dissolution of its States, while the institutions 
of mortal man shall flourish upon this terrestrial ball ? 
But we trust that the American people are not as 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 17 

yet insensible to the advantages and blessings of re- 
publicanism. And there can be no better safeguard 
for the future existence of the Republic, than a true 
appreciation of the people for the superiority of their 
institutions. 

This superiority has been so nobly demonstrated 
in the growth and prosperity of this country since 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution that we 
think him deaf to the voice of history, and blind to 
the daily occurrences of life, who will hesitate to 
acknowledge that this Union is founded upon a su- 
perior system of government, and that its citizens 
enjoy many privileges and immunities which are no- 
where tolerated in other governments. Hence it is, 
that w^e have such confident assurances of its dura- 
bility. Yes, thank God, we have confidence in 
the intelligence and patriotism of the majority of the 
American people, to trust the best government of 
earth to their keeping. This is an essential feature 
of democracy; it is the bulwark of republicanism, 
intelligence, and virtue. But it is not so in a 
monarchy or a despotism : there, the perpetuity of 
power in the rulers depends rather upon the igno- 
rance than the intelligence of those whom they gov- 
ern. For, as a natural consequence, the more the 
human mind is enlightened, the more sensible the 
individual, or the class of individuals, becomes, of 
2* 



18 INDESTKUCTIBILITY OF 

their rights and their abilities to think and act for 
themselves. 

But there are other characteristics of the republi- 
can government, whose importance demand consid- 
eration in the present connection, and whose in- 
fluence, by good citizens, must always be looked 
upon as pernicious, and adverse to national integrity. 
We refer to excessive party spirit, and the abuses of 
sectional prejudice. While it is true that their exist- 
ence, in some degree, may be advantageous in arous- 
ing the people to a love of liberty, and causing 
them to exercise a more profound interest in the 
affairs of their government, nothing can be more 
detrimental to the peace and prosperity of a State 
than the abuses of party sjnrit. When men become 
infatuated, and act, not from reason, not from prin- 
ciple, or the result of a calm and sober judgment, 
but from stubborn prejudices and extreme passions ; 
when they forget or ignore party platforms and prin- 
ciples, and resort to the more unmanly and degrad- 
ing acts, seeking to misrepresent the true principles 
and desires of their contemporaries, indulging in per- 
sonal insults and brutish violence, — then is party 
spirit a curse. 

Notwithstanding the superiority of our govern- 
ment, notwithstanding the wisdom and patriotism of 
the American people, we have seen the abuses of 
party spirit and sectional prejudice in many a hideous 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 19 

form. It has not only made its appearance in the 
common conversation of neighbors, causing dissatis- 
faction and hard feeling ; it has not only found its 
way into the columns of the various periodicals of 
our country, and there heaped injustice, slander, and 
malice upon its opponents ; but it has been intro- 
duced into the sanctuary, with a malicious feeling, 
by those who professed to be called of God to preach 
the gospel of Christ, thereby causing divisions and 
wars in the churches. It has not only wrought the 
inhabitants of one section of our country to such a 
feeling of injustice and madness as to render it un- 
pleasant, unsafe, dangerous, and almost imjjosssible, 
for the candidates of the other section to canvass it, 
and represent the true principles and desires of them- 
selves and their constituents, but it has eluded free 
discussion and elaborate arguments, by resortmg to 
deadly weapons to avenge the wrath of cowards and 
fools. It has threatened the nullification of some of 
our most wholesome laws ; it has, on several occa- 
sions, spit forth words of treason in the halls of our 
national capitol ; but, last of all, and ivorst of all, it 
has the audacity to come forth in the form of that 
contemptible, that infamous, and damnable instru- 
ment denominated "^ Secession Ordinance!" It 
has brought a mighty rebellion into our land ; caused 
men to perjure themselves, to repudiate their debts, 
steal our mints, our arsenals, and forts, to organize 



20 INDESTRUCTIBILITT OP 

a bogus confederacy, and ask us to "let them alone." 
Hence it is, that the disgrace of civil war is now 
upon our once prosperous and happy nation ; that one 
million of our fellow-citizens — of our fothers and our 
brothers — are in hostile array against each other. 
Hence it is that fire and sword are now devastating 
our land; that the forests are felled, the railroads 
torn up, the navigation of rivers obstructed, the 
homes and property of patriots and Christians burned 
up or confiscated, and the widows and orphans, the 
fatherless and motherless, weeping and wailing upon 
the hill-tops and through the valleys. And hence it 
is that national reproach is so lavishly bestowed 
upon our people by the despotic nations of the 
world ; that the occupants of thrones are so ear- 
nestly and constantly gazing away upon the shores of 
America, and determining what course they can, or 
will, pursue with our government. Thus it is that 
such a painful interest is manifest in the breast of 
each official ; that a dreadful anxiety marks the fea- 
tures of all classes, as they quickly rush forth to 
devour each telegraphic dispatch, and hastily sketch 
the paj)ers that are wafted across the Atlantic Ocean. 
All are eager to know what the policy of the Euro- 
pean powers ivill he in the present crisis. We had 
been a free and happy people. No nation of earth 
had excelled our rapid progress in the arts and 
sciences, in the increasing population and wealth of 



THE AI^IERICAN UNION. 21 

our States, and in the development of the various 
resources which render a country powerful and great, 
which build up a true nationality, that secures the 
respect and admiration of the civilized world. 
Neither have the American people been loath to 
assert the superiority of our institutions. They have 
boasted of our liberty, our wisdom, and our valor. 
They have invited the oppressed and down-trodden 
of all nations to flee the wrath of tyrants and take 
refuge under the " Stars and Stripes of America." 
By these acts, of course, they have begotten a jeal- 
ousy in the hearts of tyrants and the advocates of 
despotism, and hence we Americans have been styled 
^^ afast;peo])le" 

But we could not expect the despotic governments 
to do otherwise than feel interested in our national 
calamities. They have (especially Great Britain) 
envied the American Republic for her peace and pros- 
perity, for her wisdom, her grandeur and glory, and 
would now, doubtless, willingly — yes, gladly — see 
her rent asunder ; for, from the fall of this Republic, 
they would hope to deduce many arguments in favor 
of the justice, durability, and supremacy of a monar- 
chical system. With this illustrious example before 
them, they could expect to convince many of their 
subjects of the impracticability of republicanism and 
the incapability of man to govern himself, thereby 
suppressing, as it were, that heaven-born nature 



22 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

which prompts man to vindicate his rights. This, 
we find, is the present deplorable situation of our 
country ; this is the position that she now occupies 
before the civilized world, — almost upon the verge of 
ruin ! 

But we can, in no measure, attribute our present 
calamities to an imperfection in the principles upon 
which our government was originally founded, or to 
any great defects in the provisions of our Federal 
Constitution. The fault is with the people ! Many 
have manifested too little concern in the affairs of 
State, too little interest in the political condition of 
their country. Firmly convinced that we had a 
good government, based upon sound principles, they 
seemed to entertain no fears for its durability, and 
consequently neglected to inform themselves of the 
true principles of our national character, and the in- 
fluences of the different sections of the country upon 
one another, but, on the other hand, trusted their 
suffrages to the common tide of party spirit and sec- 
tional prejudices. And for that reason, there has 
always been a class of ambitious and unprincipled 
men, desirous of distinguishing themselves, desirous 
of reaping the emoluments of office and furthering 
the cause of sectional interests. There has always 
been a class of politicians who have availed them- 
selves of the ignorant and degraded portions of so- 
ciety, who have, by falsehoods, bribes, and threats, 



THE AI^IEPJCAN UNIOIS". 23 

succeeded in controlling passions and prejudices, and 
getting themselves into office, that they might more 
fully subserve their personal interests and the nefa- 
rious designs of sectional parties. The ballot-box, 
which has been denominated " the great safety-valve 
of republican institutions," has frequently been vio- 
lated in such divers ways, that intriguing persons 
have secured positions for which they were totally 
unqualified and entirely unworthy, both respecting 
natural abilities and moral worth. For these very 
reasons, then, it is obvious that our courts of jus- 
tice, our halls of legislators, and the executive 
mansions of our great national chief, have, too often, 
been filled by such persons as were disposed to 
render verdicts, legislate, and administer the laws, in 
that way most calculated to meet the approbation of 
their sectional and party prejudices. 

But what was the primary cause of this bitter 
party strife and deep sectional animosity that has so 
long been ilie curse of our land ? All will now agree 
that the great source of party strife which has, for 
many years, distinguished the two sections of our 
country by the terms North and SoutJi, — all agree 
that it is to be found in the " Peculiar Institution of 
the South." It is found in " The Sum of all Yilla- 
nies." There have been, to be sure, other questions 
of dispute between the people of the North and 
South ; but all the important political questions. 



24 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

when traced to their first cause, seem to have their 
origin in, and to be subordinate to, the one great 
question, — Negro Slavery, 

This institution, it is argued by some self-righteous 
Pharisees of "Dixie," is of divine origin, is author- 
ized by the precepts of the gospel, and is always 
compatible with the truest patriotism and the truest 
j)iety. We do not desire, at this time, to enter into 
a theological discussion; but we should be gratified 
to have some of those learned divines and vindicators 
of human slavery interj)ret the following passages : 
"Eemember them that are in bonds, as bound with 
them." (Heb. xiii. 3.) "Thou shalt not deliver unto 
his master the servant which is escaped from his 
master unto thee : He shall dwell with thee, even 
among you, in that place which he shall choose in 
one of thy gates where it liketh him best : thou shalt 
not oppress him." (Dent, xxiii. 15, 16.) "Is not 
this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands 
of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to 
let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
yoke?" (Isa. Iviii. 6.) "Masters, give unto your 
servants that which is just and equal ; knowing that 
ye also have a Master in heaven." (Col. iv. 1.) 
"For one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye 
are brethren." "Neither be ye called masters: for 
one is your Master, even Christ." (Matt, xxiii. 8, 
10.) "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 25 

that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : 
for this is the law and the prophets." (Matt. vii. 12.) 

Do you find anything in this guaranteeing the 
right to hold pivperti/ in man? 

Waiving all other arguments respecting the divinity 
of the institution, it has been argued that the blacks 
are of an inferior race ; that their natural endow- 
ments are so poor as to render them incapable of a 
high standard of intellectual culture ; that they are a 
degraded race of beings, fit only to serve the white 
man, and to perform the labor which the white man 
cannot. Or, in the language of Mr. Yancey, of Ala- 
bama, "The dirty, greasy, black rascals are only fit 
to work in the cotton and cane, and do drudgery to 
civilize the white man." 

But is it true that the black man has no natural 
gifts? Have we not seen the assertion disproved 
upon this very platform? Only give him a fair 
oi^portunity to develop himself, and you will find 
that the negro has talent. Otherwise, why is it that 
the masters have used so much caution and care to 
prevent the circulation of certain books and periodi- 
cals among their slaves ? Why have they so much 
feared, and so frequently forbidden, any efforts to 
teach their slaves, if they considered them to be a 
naturally degraded and depraved race ? 

Let this question, however, be decided in what- 
ever way it may, let it be proved, if you please, that 
3 



26 INDESTEUCTIBILITY OF 

their natural endowments are generally inferior to 
those of the Caucasian race, we have learned that 
neither taleiit nor acquired wisdom can constitute a 
basis for arbitrary power, — a natural right for one 
human being to control the lives and fortunes of 
others ! For, were it otherwise, or were the absence 
of color an essential qualification for the enjoyment 
of freedom, witli the same propriety, with the same 
degree of justice, might men enslave their own chil- 
dren, and sell them into perpetual bondage ; because 
we all know that there are many of our Caucasian 
friends that have sons and daughters, whose natural 
endowments are rather inferior to some of the Gre- 
cian philosophers and Eoman orators ! We are also 
assured that there are but few slave masters who 
have not enough colored children! Away, then, — 
away forever, with those defective, those foolish 
arguments, which are so often used to establish the 
right of man to hold j^ro^erty in human beings! 

But since Slavery has been tolerated in a number 
of our States, and since the "Dred Scott Decision" 
has pronounced the slave to be nothing more than 
"Goods and chattels," it is well to take from this 
stand-point a retrospective view of the moral, social, 
and political influences exerted upon those sections of 
our country, by "The Peculiar Institution." There, 
children are taught from infancy to look upon labor 
as degrading. They are often reared in luxury and 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 2? 

idleness; and, as the physical system is improperly 
developed from the lack of sufficient manual labor, 
so is the mental system weakened and unfitted for a 
true appreciation of high-toned morality, and an obe- 
dience to those laws of virtue and justice which render 
humanity noble and great. Hence, the great social 
distinctions among the Southern people. Among 
them, men are respected according to the number of 
slaves that they may own. Indeed, they have gone 
so far with this as to unblushiugly make the declara- 
tion, before the representatives of our nation, in Con- 
gress assembled, that the laboring people of the 
country were nothing but " the mudsills of society I " 
If, in a literary point of view, we compare the Slave 
States with the Free, we will find them to be far 
inferior. — No public schools, no colleges, no system 
of education compared with the Northern States. — 
Ignorance stalks abroad among the people, and the 
masses are controlled more by the common tide of 
inherited prejudices than by common sense. They 
tell us that they have smart men among them, — that 
they have produced some of our ablest statesmen, — 
some of our bravest soldiers, and best skilled military 
tacticians. This we admit ; but where did they get 
their mental discipline? where did they acquire their 
wisdom? Did they inherit it from their illustrious 
ancestors ? did they obtain it in Southern law-schools 
and military academies? or did they sneak over 



28 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

among the colleges and libraries of the detestable 
" YanJiees" to have a little common sense beat into 
them ? Ah ! it is vanity to boast of JSouthern litera- 
ture! Just compare the reports of their schools, the 
catalogues of their colleges, and the numbers that are 
unable to read and write ; compare the statistics of 
the two sections of the country, and enough has been 
done to convince the honest and intelligent citizen 
that the institution of Negro Slavery has been the 
great moral, social, and political curse of the Ameri- 
can Union ! 

But since certain provisions were made in the Fede- 
ral Constitution for its protection, we should never 
have claimed a right to interfere with the institution, 
in the States where it existed, farther than the right 
oi free sjjeech, and the power of moral suasion over 
this as well as all other evils. Neither did we oppose 
their constitutional right to form new Slave States, so 
long as they were governed by the provisions of the 
Constitution ; so long as they were guided by a sense 
of justice and honor, and a determination that all 
parties and principles should have a fair hearing, and 
that all free citizens should have an equal and undis- 
turbed privilege of expressing their preferences at 
the ballot-box. But have our Southern brethren 
lived up to their duties under the Constitution? Is 
there a gentleman in Boston, — is there an intelligent 
citizen in America, so blind with prejudice, so bigoted 



THE AMEEICAN UNION. 29 

and maddened with party-spirit as to exempt the 
South from censure, — to deny that she has not been 
the instigator of almost every act of usurpation and 
violence ? She has never been satisfied with her con- 
stitutional rights, although she has controlled the 
important offices of the government for about two- 
thirds of its existence. There have been nineteen 
presidential elections. Twelve of them resulted in 
the election of Southern men who held slaves. 
Seven resulted in the election of Korthern men who 
were not the owners of slaves. It is also to be ob- 
served that no Northern man has ever been re-elected; 
but that five of the Southern representatives have. 
The nineteenth president did not get one electoral vote 
in the South ! In spite of all these advantages and 
indulgences, though, they have ever been dissatisfied, 
and demanded more! Not only have they suppressed 
free speech in the Southern States and inflicted per- 
secution and death upon those who dared to utter 
sentiments adverse to slavery ; but they have invaded 
free territory to carry elections at the point of the 
bayonet ! They have formed bogus constitutions, 
and attempted to force the same upon the people of a 
free territory ! Look at " bleeding Kansas;," how the 
usurpers invaded her, deprived the honest citizens of 
their rights, — held a mock convention at Lecomp- 
ton, — framed a slave constitution and code of laws 
which the people rejected, detested, and abhorred. 



30 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

But yet they carry this infamous piece of work to 
their representative at the national capitol ; where, 
to the everlasting disgrace of the eighteenth president 
of the United States, to the chagrin and disgust of 
all true and loyal Americans, he endeavors to per- 
suade Congress to force this obnoxious instrument 
upon the people, — but, thank God, does not succeed! 

This, my friends, appears to have been the spirit 
engendered by the aristocracy and chivalry of the 
South, to the year of our Lord, one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty, and to the eighty-fourth year of 
our National Independence, when the nineteenth can- 
didate is to be chosen to till the executive chair. 
But, having controlled the affairs of the Government 
so loiig, and, feeling assured that the outraged and 
insidted people intended to wrest the power from the 
grasp of traitors, and place it in the hands of honest 
and patriotic men, they openly declare that they will 
never submit to the choice of a constitutional majority 
of the people, except that it shall result in the selec- 
tion of their candidate, — that they " never will sub- 
mit to the election oi Abraham Lincoln!'^ 

But the earth does not cease to revolve upon its 
axis ; neither do the stars fall from heaven I The 
alternations of day and night roll round the glorious 
day of November sixth, when, the free and brave men 
of the country, animated with the love of liberty and 
a determination to exercise the right which was pur- 



THE AMEKICAN UKION. 31 

chcased with the blood of their fathers, come to the 
ballot-box and deposit their votes for Abraham, who 
was abiding in the land of "Succordom." The result 
of this election afforded the desired pretext of South 
Carolina to attempt a dissolution of the Union! — 
that foolish, fanatical, that contemptible and detest- 
able old commonwealth, or hot-bed of treason, — 
scarcely worthy for the aliode of Lucifer and his 
angels! She assembles her convention on the 17th 
of December, and on the 20th it unanimously passes 
this "league with hell and covenant with death," 
w^hich they style a " Secession Ordinance : " " We, 
the people of South Carolina, in convention assem- 
bled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared 
and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in 
convention on the 23d day of May in the year of our 
Lord, 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United 
States was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts 
of the general assembly of this State, ratifying the 
amendments of the said Constitution are hereby re- 
pealed, and that the Union now subsisting between 
South Carolina and other States, under the name of 
the United States of America, is dissolved ! " 

Oh, what a trying hour for every true American 
patriot, when the proceedings of this vile body of 
Conventioners came before them ! Wonderful that 
they did not intuitively rush forth to the total exter- 
mination, of the South Carolinian race ! Wonderful 



32 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

that those mighty cannons had not bounded away 
from the ramparts of Bunker Hill, to devastate the 
land of treason! What would Andrew Jackson have 
done with that convention ? He would have sent an 
army, and hanged them as high as the stars! The 
only thing that he regretted upon his death-bed was, 
that he had not hanged the leather of Secession ! But 
alas ! the ghost of Jackson had departed, while the 
followers of Calhoun still flourished, and unfortunately 
for the nation, there was no jj^resident at its head, — 
no being worthy the title of President or man, 
"Granny Buchanan" admits the right of secession, or 
denies the authority of the Federal Government to co- 
erce a seceding State, although the cries and petitions 
of patriots are going up from every corner of the 
Union. Although they advise him, entreat him, and 
j^ray that he will exercise the duties of his office by 
garrisoning the forts and stopping the spread of 
treason and rebellion. Although his unpatriotic and 
infamous negligence causes shame, resignation, and 
tears in his cabinet, he turns his back upon all, and 
looks away upon the held of treason, seemingly, with 
the utmost composure ! In rapid succession, the Cot- 
ton States follow the example of South Carolina. 
Their Congressmen resign and proceed to Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, where they attempt to organize a 
new government under the title of the " Southern 
Confederacy." 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 33 

This doctrine of the right of secession, and the 
establishment of a provisional government in our 
midst, some of the conspirators pretend to argue, 
rests upon the doctrine "that the Union is a compact 
between the' independent States from which any one 
of them may withdraw at pleasure in virtue of its 
sovereignty." 

But is it true that our government was a compact 
of independent sovereignties, subject to dissolution 
and ruin at any time w^hen a faction of ambitious 
politicians might feel disposed to deceive and drag a 
State out of the Union? Did the framers of the 
Constitution so understand it, when they declared 
that "No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, 
or confederation, grant letters of marque or reprisal ; 
no State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in 
time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State or with a foreign power, or en- 
gage in war unless actually invaded, or in such immi- 
nent danger as will not admit of delay " ? Did the 
several States so understand it w^hen they ratified 
that Constitution ; or did they understand that the 
Constitution of the United States w^as to be the 
supreme law of the land, "anything in the Consti- 
tution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith- 
standing"? Certainly it can be nothing but the 
grossest folly and waste of language to talk about a 



34 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

constitutional right for secession. Nothing can be 
found in that instrument from which to infer that it 
was otherwise intended by its originators, than that 
this government should be perpetual ; and, as some 
of our statesmen have asserted, it would be unrea- 
sonable to suppose that the founders of a government 
would, intentionally, provide a means for its destruc- 
tion. 

But again, other leading rebels call this revolution 
" one of the greatest revolutions in the annals of the 
world." Jeiferson Davis says that it is " an abuse of 
language to call it a revoliUioii." This right of revo- 
lution under tyrannical governments, of course, is 
admitted and, we learn, is the precise doctrine advo- 
cated by our forefathers, — that among the natural 
endowments of man are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness ; for the security of which, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; and that when- 
ever any form of government becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
to aboHsh it. 

Is it true, though, that the United States Govern- 
ment had become destructive of these ends? Had 
any radical changes been made in either the Constitu- 
tion or the laws of the nation, which, if faithfiTlly 
obeyed, would materially affect the enjoyments of 
any of those rights ? Indeed, it would seem that if 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 35 

any section of our country, or any portion of our 
fellow-citizens have a right to complain of oppress- 
iveness from the supreme laws of the nation, or of 
injustice and usurpation from the hands of the ad- 
ministrators of the Federal Constitution and laws, 
that right must devolve upon any part of the commu- 
nity, must devolve upon any State, before a Southern 
people or a Slave State, — from the fact, as we have 
previously noticed, that the Federal Government-, for 
the greater part of its existence, has been adminis- 
tered by those directly connected with, or particularly 
interested in, the institutions of the South. No reso- 
lution, no question, has ever come before Congress, 
which would materially affect all or any portion of 
the nation ; no such resolution has been presented to 
that body in the absence of a itiir representation from 
the " Cotton Kingdom " ; no such resolution has been 
adopted by that body without a free and fair hearing 
of the representatives from the Gulf States. Yes, 
we may say, a hetter hearing, in many cases, than 
they should have been permitted to enjoy. Yet they 
pretend that they have many grievances. The tari;^ 
question has been troubling some of them a great 
deal for the last thirty years ; and we learn that in 
the days of Jackson and Calhoun, the nervous old 
State "took the responsibility" (as the Charleston 
Mercury would say) to " nullify " some of the enact- 
ments of the United States Congress ; and Mr. Cal- 



36 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

houn had the egotism and the presumption to try to 
vindicate her action upon the floor of the United 
States Senate. But, fortunately for America, Andrew 
Jackson had fought the battle of New Orleans before 
this important event. He was not to be frightened 
by the bellowing of South Carolina, or the barking of 
her hounds (houus) . He was not to be forced from 
his executive duties by the brandishing of canes and 
bowie knives, or by the snap of revolvers ! Al- 
though we believe General Jackson to have been an 
ambitious and an envious man, he certainly had many 
noble traits of character and good principles. He 
had sworn to protect the Constitution and laws of 
the nation when they were entrusted to him by the 
people ; and, to his immortal praise and honor, we 
see him standing by his oath in the hour of the na- 
tion's peril, and swearing, — ''By the Eternal, the 
Union shall he jpreservedJ^ He knew that " the pro- 
tection of manufactures was a leading and avowed 
object for the formation of the Constitution," and 
that "the second law passed by Congress, after its 
formation, was a revenue law." He also knew that 
the earliest supporters of the protective system had 
been found in the Southern States. 
But, as we have already learned, the principal charge 
against the Northern States, and the great cause (as 
our Southern brethren would have it) for the present 
rebellion in the nation, was, that the citizens of the 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 37 

Northern States had intermeddled too much with the 
institution of Southern slavery, by refusing the sur- 
render of fugitive slaves, and enacting State laws to 
obstruct the capture and return of^ those blacks who 
had escaped from servitude. Indeed, some of them 
attempt nothing else than to ascribe this as the only 
cause, and would make it cover the whole ground of 
justification for the destruction of the Union. Yet 
at the same time, probably, some of the Southern 
States could not prove that they had ever lost a single 
slave by these acts of Northern. legislation ; probably 
could not prove that all the abolitionists of Massa- 
chusetts, all the anti-slavery societies of the North, 
with their various tracts and printed periodicals, and 
with all the lectures and speeches of William Lloyd 
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglas, 
Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, Dr. Cheever, and 
Henry Ward Beechcr, have cost the " land of Dixie " 
one hundred^ or even Jifty sable children, since the 
founding of the government. Nothing is necessary 
but to listen to the voice of impartial history, to be 
convinced that the South has done the greatest injus^ 
tice to the Free States, in this alleged interference 
with slavery ; saying nothing about the pretext that 
it would aff(n'd for revolution, were the North really 
guilty of every charge. 

W^e know that the Northern people have frequently 
been guilty of errors and inconsistencies, that they 
4 



38 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

have sometimes been too hasty in forming conclu- 
sions. We also believe that the abolitionists, while 
engaged in a good cause, and sometimes, if not al- 
ways, with pure motives, have been premature and 
imprudent. John Brown, for aught that we know, 
may have been a man of pure heart, and perhaps 
thought that " he was acting by the authority of the 
Lord Jesus," when he took possession of Harper's 
Ferry and frightened "Kentucky's mother" out of 
her wits. Yet, it cannot but be apparent to the dis- 
cerning mind that he acted imprudently, and under- 
took the work of emancipation with a premature 
zeal. 

While, therefore, we must acknowledge that the 
Northern people have said and done many things that 
were wrong, we cannot find that they have ever 
attempted to deprive the South of her constitutional 
rio'hts ; have ever threatened to dissolve the Union 
if a South Carolinian should be constitutionally 
elected to the presidency. But, on the contrary, 
they have, almost as a whole, been an open-hearted 
and forbearing people, ready to meet all important 
questions upon the platform, and to trust their deci- 
sion to the ballot-box. They have always permitted 
the Southern politicians to enjoy the freedom of 
speech among them. Yes, they have been permit- 
ted to come into our midst regularly, and deliver 
speeches, charges, insults, and threats, for which they 



THE AJMERICAN UNIO^-. 30 

would not hesitate to mob and hang our representa- 
tives, without judge or jury, had they gone into the 
Southern States and attempted to pour out an equiva- 
lent for the same ! There can be no doubt but that 
the Northern people have, for some time, been too 
lenient toward the Southern ruffians. They have 
borne more insults and abuses than they ought to 
have done, and much more than was necessary for 
them to endure ; and, as a necessary consequence, as 
a spoiled child that has been indulged by fond par- 
ents, they event guilly arrive at such a point of self- 
conceit and presumption as to attempt to ignore the 
whole authority, and to usurp the entire powers, to 
domineer over the former. Nor can it be denied 
that this egotism, this slave aristocracy of the South, 
has received much aid and been hastened in its 
growth, by a certain class of Northern people who 
were unconscious of what they were doing. It is a 
lamentable fact that there has always been a class of 
persons so poorly and weakly constituted, so one- 
sighted in the discernment of great facts, and so un- 
stable in the formation of judgment, that they were 
ready, at any time, to sacrifice a great principle, and 
exert their entire influence in the opposite direction, 
simply because some others have gone a little too far 
with this good principle, — because they have become 
"fanatical." This has been the case with many, re- 
specting the tAvo great national parties of our coun- 



40 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

try. Many citizeus (both North and South, we sup- 
pose, but especially in the North,) acknowledge that 
the institution of negro slavery is a great moral, 
social, and political curse, which ought to be abol- 
ished. Yet they will tell you that John Brown was 
a fool; that the abolitionists are fanatics, who have 
undertaken a work that they can never accomplish ; 
and that our representatives have " too much to say 
about the nigger ; " that our clergymen can find noth- 
ing to talk about but slavery. Hence they denounce 
this great party whose primary basis is laid in those 
very principles which they acknowledge to be just. 
They unjustly denounce the whole party because it 
contains a few "fanatics," ignore principles, and give ^ 
their influence to a sectional party, that has little 
2)rinci2)le or honor; thereby filling our government 
offices with a class of infamous persons who are con- 
tinually plotting treason, and seeking to destroy and 
disgrace this glorious land of liberty. Is not this 
inconsistency in the worst form? Does it not dis- 
close a great iveahiess in man ? If we acknowledge 
that there is a great evil in our midst, rapidly in- 
creasing its magnitude, threatening the destruction of 
our peace and prosperity, of our most sacred rights 
and privileges, threatening the subversion of our 
government, is it not our dut}^ to prepare for imme- 
diately resisting it? Because a few fanatics and fools 
have madly dashed forth with the expectation of 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 41 

eradicating the evil themselves, in the twinkling of 
an eye, should we be so much disgusted w^th their 
folly as to forget our own duty, and fly from the 
tempest, removing the obstructions as we went? 
Certainly this would not be the part of wise and 
good men ; yet it is a parallel case with the one 
above cited ! It has been too common an excuse 
among the dough-faces and one-eyed politicians of 
the North, to say that "I'm as much opposed to the 
extension of slavery as you are ; but I believe in the 
Northern people attending to their own business, and 
letting slavery alone where it is ; they have too 
much to say about the jpoor nigger. ^^ This does not 
exactly coincide with the doctrine that wx recently 
heard advocated by a Methodist clergyman, w^hen he 
so earnestly and repeatedly assured his audience, 
that, "if they did not croivd upon the devils they 
would soon find his satanic majesty crowding upon 
them ! " 

But if we acknowledge that the institution of 
negro slavery is an evil, if we acknowledge that 
there is a dreadful wickedness in our land, let it exist 
in whatever shape or form it may, if we concede that 
the abolitionists have been hurried too far by their 
infatuated zeal, if w^e see that the reformers have 
been too eager to progress a good work, and conse- 
quently have injured themselves and the cause in 

which they were engaged, — does this, in any degree 
4* 



42 INDESTEUCTIBILITY OF 

whatever, relieve us from the obligation to mature 
another, a better plan, for the emancipation of our 
fellow-creatures that are in bondage ? Does this free 
us from every duty we owe to humanity and justice? 
A grosser delusion certainly could not come upon 
man than to suppose that the inconsistencies and 
errors of others would render him immaculate, or 
free from all moral obli2:ations ! Moral science does 
not teach us that we can reform others by simply 
pointing out all their errors, or telling them that 
they are " fanatics ; " we must set them right. Nei- 
ther does it teach us that we are to rectify ourselves 
in all things, by continually scrutinizing the actions 
of our fellow-beings, in order to detect and magnify 
every wrong which they may commit. To be sure, 
we can profit ourselves, always, by diligently and 
honestly investigating the characters of different in- 
dividuals, and carefully avoiding all those errors and 
inconsistencies for which they may be responsible. 
But there is no principle, no reasoning, in moral 
Bcience or moral philosophy, to justify such a doc- 
trine ; there is no good sense in that train of rea- 
soning which attempts to establish the argument, 
that a perpetration of certain immoral, unjust, and 
degrading acts by one individual confers a license 
or a natural right upon others to do the same things ! 
If your neighbor should circulate a base falsehood 
concerning your character, it would confer no right 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 43 

upon you to publish a list of charges for disgraceful 
acts of his, which you knew were utterly false. The 
simple circumstances that some persons have gone 
beyond the limits of justice, reason, and common 
sense, does in no wise indicate that others should re- 
cede from the common standard of moral rectitude. 
Yet we have too often found men acting from a dif- 
ferent principle. 

But we are happy, this evening, my friends, to con- 
gratulate you on the fact that there seems to be some 
limit provided by nature for all of those extremes to 
which the passions, prejudices, and delusions of men 
may carry them. When they have gone so far in 
sectional prejudice, self-ambition, and infamy, as to 
reject that government which was founded upon the 
most noble and benign principles that have ever 
existed, the grandest and most glorious Kepublic 
that ever stood beneath the canopy of the heavens, 
and received the smiles -of angels ; when they at- 
tempt to destroy a government which has been 
founded upon those principles which we have seen 
constitute the basis of the American Union, 'tis time 
that the avenging wrath of insulted Heaven should 
break forth from the portals of glory, to rebuke 
those traitors for their presumption, and to arouse 
the sleeping patriots to a sense of their duty. But, 
glory to God, the American patriots may rejoice that 
they have seen this verified in their own country. 



44 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OP 

There is justice, there are wisdom and valor, among 
the loyal sons of freedom, and they will fly to its 
rescue in the hour of trial. 

Yes, my friends, we know that they icill rescue 
the government from the hands of treason. They 
now fully realize the value of this government. 
They know that if the Union is now lost, it will 
probably remain so forever ; and that, if the Union 
is lost, all our hopes, peace, and prosperity for the 
future are blasted. Because, when we surrender the 
flag of the Union, when we compromise with traitors, 
and acknowledge the independence of another " Con- 
federacy " in our midst, whose avowed principles are 
found in the assumption that the blacks are of an 
inferior race, and that man has a natural or "divine 
right "to hold property in man, and whose corner- 
stones have been boastfully declared to be planted 
upon the institution of slavery, and the natural rights 
of one race resulting from the natural depravity of 
another, — were we to quietly submit to all this, we 
w^ould have, as it were, calmly folded our arms upon 
our breast, and placed our head on the chopping-block. 
Had we been compelled to surrender a portion of 
our territory to the dominion of Eebels, either with 
or without resistance, and to acknowledge their inde- 
pendence, we could have had no guarantees for peace 
in the future. We could have had no confidence in 
a people who had violated every principle of honor 



THE AMEKICAN UNION. 45 

"and vMue, and afterwards founded another govern- 
ment upon self-ambition, pevjury, and malice. Nay, 
it is cd>surd to suppose tliat it would be a ^vork of 
less magnitude to form treaties and alliances with 
those people, after they held a distinct nationality of 
their own, than what it was while they were subordi- 
nate to, and formed a part of, the one great and 
supreme government of the United States. The 
history of their, people would afford no assurances 
that such a nation would stand by any contract, any 
pled-e of honor, longer than it would seem to sub- 
serve their own interests. Nothing could be ex- 
pected from a government founded upon such unnat- 
ural, unjust, and foolish principles but a continual 
train of internal dissensions and insurrections, and 
constant wars upon its outer borders. They admit 
the right of secession ; this is a fundamental prin- 
ciple li the Rebel government, — that any State may 
secede, at any time when she feels so disposed ; thus, 
as it were, placing the destructible combustibles 
beneath the pillars "of their government, to destroy 
them at any moment! Is it possible to suppose 
that a government of this description could long 
withstand the shock of time? that it would not be 
rent in fragments before the days of asingle genera- 
tion were numbered? Before the several depart- 
ments could be arranged and put into operation, 
some State would feel herself aggrieved, and would 



46 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

quickly secede from the "Southern Confederacy," — 
would declare her independence ! There would also 
be a mighty host of hungry politicians and " Southern 
gentlemen," claimiug the office of king or priest. 
Of course, some of them would get badly disap- 
pointed ; and, consequently, their blood being too 
^^ nohle " to stand anything of that kind, would imme- 
diately proceed to form a " Secession Ordinance " for 
their State. They would have to hold office. If- 
they could not all be accommodated in one " Confed- 
eracy," they would be compelled to divide it, that 
each one might have a government of his own. Does 
it not, then, seem to be nothing but the grossest 
folly, the most palpable nonsense, and the very 
essence of silliness and idiocy, to think, speak, write, 
or dream, of anything like justice, peace, prosperity, 
virtue, or philanthropy, patriotism, and valor, result- 
ing from a system of government like unto that of 
the "Southern Confederacy of America"? Indeed, 
it would appear to be a work too cliildisli and simple 
to be originated or participated in by men possessing 
common sense! 

No wonder, then, that the great mass of the 
Northern people are aroused ; that they come forth, 
almost to a man, declaring that forbearance has 
ceased to be a virtue ; that Secession is nothing but 
treason, and that the Union shall he preserved, at all 
hazards, No wonder that party name and party 



THE AI^IERICAN UNION. 47 

spirit are so almost universally ignored or forgotten in 
every N^orthern State ; that the brave and good men 
are rushing forth from every quarter, from every 
party, freely, nobly, offering their lives and their 
fortunes for the salvation of the Union ! Yes, many 
good citizens who had formerly taken no interest in 
political affairs, who had, as it were, been perfectly 
dormant with regard to the affairs of State, are now 
excited and brought to an appreciation of their situa- 
tion, their interest, and their duty. Many of the 
American people had never before realized the ad- 
vantages and blessings of this Union ! Instead of 
investigating the true principles of our national char- 
acter, to see the superior blessings that it afforded us, 
and the innumerable advantages and liberties which 
our people enjoy over the citizens of any other form 
of government, and for which we should be thanlc- 
fully proud, — instead of this, they have too often 
been disposed to complain of the oppressiveness of 
the government, and the hardships which they have 
endured. 

But when the hour of trial has arrived, when the 
voice of treason is sounded throuofh the land, when 
the "stars and stripes" are snatched from the staff of 
Liberty and trampled beneath the unhallowed feet of 
Hebels, when the thunder of artillery and the clash of 
arms have echoed in their ears, — then they are all 
awakened to a proper consideration of the momentous 



48 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

■question before them : whether the inheritance of 
their fathers should be preserved, or whether the 
price of their ancestors' blood should be wilfully 
and wickedly sacrificed ; whether the government of 
the United States was worth preserving, or whether 
the w^ise and brave sons of freedom should calmly 
submit to the will and demands of its destroyers. 
Oh, what a time for testing the true characters of 
men ! what a glorious opportunity to know who are 
the great and good men of America ! when the voice 
is crying at every door, — Men and women, will you 
do your duty ? Will you stand by your government 
in its trying hour? Will you convince the world 
that you are neither afraid nor ashamed to be found 
clefendiug the cause of liherty^ with your treasure 
and 3^our blood, or will you be a traitor and a rebel f 
You are for the Union, or you are against it ; you are 
either a philanthropist and a patriot at heart, or you 
are a vile traitor. Will you now define your posi- 
tion ? Have you the courage to declare what cause 
you are going to support ? This is what will test the 
true character of an individual, and show whether or 
no he possesses any of those qualities which constitute 
the true man. Yes, when a plot is laid by those in- 
famous persons for the assassination of our President, 
while on his way to the Federal City, where he is to 
be lawfully inaugurated, — where he swears, before 
his countrymen, and before his God, to stand by the 



THE AMEKICAN UNION. 49 

Constitution of the United States, and "to take care 
that the laws are faithfully executed," — and where 
he tells us that ''all the protection, which consistently 
with the Constitution and the laws can be given, will 
be cheerfully given to all States, when lawfully de- 
manded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one sec- 
tion as to another." " That there are persons in one 
section or another who seek to destroy the Union at 
all events and are glad of any pretext to do it, he will 
neither affirm or deny." But he asks those "who 
really love the Union " — " before entering upon so 
grave a matter as the destruction of our national fab- 
ric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, 
would it not be well to ascertain precisely why we do 
it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there 
is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly 
from have no real existence ? " " My countrymen, 
one and all, think calmly and Avell upon this whole 
subject." " In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue 
of civil war. The government will not assail you. 
You can have no conflict, without being yourselves 
the ao'OTessors. You have no oath registered in 
heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have 
the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend 
it." "We are not enemies, but friends." When 
the news comes teeming from the secession press, 
that this Inaugural was read in "the Montgomery 
5 



50 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

Congress," ^^ amid shouts of Imcg liter, ^^ it was ratlier 
too much to be borne by the loyal men of the North ! 
Yea, when Jefferson Davis sends those Rebel ambas- 
sadors to Washington, to make demands of our Presi- 
dent and our Government, — when our rivers are 
obstructed by the hands of treason, — when we learn 
that our compatriots in the South have been shot 
down, imprisoned, and tortured to death, for simply 
expressing their love and devotion to the Union, — 
when we receive intelligence that the gallant Ander- 
son has been compelled to lower the " stars and 
stripes " from the battered walls of Fort Sumter, 
to give place to the " palmetto flag," — when the 
Eebels declare that the}^ are going to plant the "rattle- 
snake flag" upon the Capitol at Washington, upon 
Faneuil Hall, and upon Bunker Hill Monument — 
that is enough ! the spirit of Seveyity-six is awakened ! 
Xo wonder that the Union flags are shooting forth 
from every house, from every window, that "the 
star-spangled banner" is waving from the colossal 
spires of ever}^ city, of every town, bearing those 
glorious inscriptions, — " TAe Union, the Constitution 
and the enforcement of the Laivs,^^ — " The Union, 
it must and shall he preserved.'^ Oh ! how manfidly, 
how nobly, the party-presses lay aside their old preju- 
dices and partj^-slang, for "an after consideration," 
placing the " stars and stripes " at the head of their 
columns, declaring that the protection of that flag is 



THE AMERICAN UJs^ION. 51 

paramount to every other consideration ! How fasci- 
nating, how inspiring it was, when the trump of war 
was sounded, and the great and brave men were called 
to rescue the government from the hands of traitors, 
from everlasting destruction and disgrace. As if a 
voice from heaven had suddenly commanded them to 
awake and prepare for duty, we see them rushing 
forth, at the first roll of the drum, mounting the 
rostrum, mounting the house-tops and proclaiming 
"liberty and union, now and forever, one and insepa- 
rable," Declaring that civil war had been forced 
upon the Government without provocation, that the 
national flag had been insulted by traitors, — that the 
Constitution and laws of our country had been de- 
clared null and void, and were openly defied by a 
large class of armed men: — that consequently, they 
belonged to no party, and could think and speak of 
nothing else, till the "stars and stripes" were again 
floating over every inch of the United States Terri- 
tory, — till Rebels had laid down their arms, and no 
longer defied the supreme laws of the land. Yes, 
when the President calls upon the loyal States for 
seventy-five thousand men, to protect our beleaguered 
capitol, we see — ay! the world sees — that there 
are plenty of men in America yet ! plenty ©f heroes, 
eager to pay the price of liberty and the expense of 
republicanism I These glorious truths, respecting the 
government and equal rights of men, were not buried 



52 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

at Yorktown, or upon the fields of Lexington, with 
the bones of the EevoUitionaiy sires. Nay ! the God 
of eternal justice had otherwise decreed it. Plence, 
it was, that the bosom of every good man, of every 
wdse and noble lady, was rekindled with an undying 
love for the Union, and a willingness to sacrifice all 
in its defence. And hence it was that every loyal 
State was so ambitious that her sons should be the 
first to respond to the cry of help at Washington. 
Well does Old Massachusetts remember the circum- 
stance. Never, my friends, — never can you for- 
get that hour in which you gave up yom* fathers, 
yonr husbands, your sons, and your brothers, to 
freedom's cause. Never can- you forget the emo- 
tions of your patriotic breasts, on the nineteenth 
of April, Eighteen hundred and sixty-one, when 
the news came flashing along the telegraphic wires, 
that your friends had been stoned and sliot doivn 
by a mob of cowardly savages^ in the streets of 
Baltimore, while on their way to defend and protect 
the Constitution and laws of your country ! Although 
you w^ere disposed to drop tears of grief upon the 
mangled corpses of the fallen heroes, did you not feel 
proud of those valiant ones who had first responded 
to their (Country's call, — who had first celebrated that 
anniversary by pouring their blood upon the shrine 
of liberty? Did you not feel that the justice of 
Heaven would soon demand retrilnition for the blood 



THE AMERICAi^ UXION. 53 

which was spilled in Baltimore, on the nineteenth of 
April? Yea; then it \Yas, that the world began to 
learn a lesson — when they beheld an army of half a 
7nillion of men, marshalled on the bank of the Poto- 
mac, crying for vengeance, — Lead us on to Rich- 
mond : lead us into the land of Secession : lead us 
over to the land of treason! When they saw the 
vaults of our banks and the safes of our merchants ^y 
ojoen to the support of the government, — when they 
beheld the coifers of misers freely offered to '' Uncle 
Sam," and the purfee-strings of those occupying the 
most humble stations of life loosening to contribute 
their contents to the cause of liberty and justice, 
to the cause of humanity, then the nations of the 
earth no longer doubt the fact that we still have a 
govermnent. Although the British " Lyon " roars 
around Washington, and shakes his shaggy mane ; 
although our government and brave officers are sub- 
jected to the censure and criticism of the " all wise " 
Bussell, while the London Times is thundering away 
in the Eastern World, ambitious to know how much 
injustice it can do to our government, and to the 
friends of republicanism ; notwithstanding all this, 
truth is mighty; facts will spread even beyond the 
limits of the ocean ! Hence, some of the European 
journals step forth and declare that if it was done in 
good faith, the manner in which the people of the 
Northern States of the American Union have sacri- 
5* 



54 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

ficed almost every other consideration, and rallied to 
the support of the Constitution and Union, is certainly- 
one of the grandest examples of self-denying patriot- 
ism that the world has ever witnessed ! 

In spite of the momentary reverses which the 
national arms experienced at Big Bethel, at Bull 
Run, and Ball's Bluff; notwithstanding the jubilee of 
the Rebels over these events ; notwithstanding tliey are 
assembling daily and imploring Heaven for assistance 
in the destruction of the American Union, — imploring 
Heaven for assistance to take from mankind their 
nearest and dearest rights. And, although the 
Southern press has the presumption to claim that 
God is upon the side of the " Southern Confederacy ;" 
that God is upon the side of despotism ; that he is 
wielding the swords and cannons of traitors, and 
leading them onward to victory and independence, 
have not those reverses, upon the soil of Northern Vir- 
ginia, proved themselves to be events, in the hands 
of Providence, by which to work out an exceeding 
greater weight of glory than had ever crowned the 
national arms of America, — wreaths of glory, brighter 
than which had never encircled the " star-spangled 
banner" ? Yea ! then the portals of heaven seemed 
to open, and the shouts of ayigels were heard, leading 
our gallant troops onward to victory! Brave men, 
inspired with a righteous cause, cannot be conquered, 
cannot be defeated. Hence we see the ghost of 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 55 

secession fleeing from the plains of Missouri, from 
the vane3^s of Kentucky, and" the mountains of Tir- 
ginia, as the army of Liberty advances. 

The notes of victory resound from the shores of 
South Carolina, as the noble Dupont sails into Port 
Eoyal, with his gallant crew, and replants the "stuff 
of liberty " there. 

Soon, again, the joyful news arrives that Gen. 
Thomas has defeated the hosts of Zollicoffer, at Som- 
erset, Kentucky, — has slain their chief and captured 
a number of Rebels. Commodore Foote carries the 
music down to Old Tennessee, where his soldiers 
beat the ode of li]:>ert3^, with shot and shell, upon the 
battlements of Fort Henry, in double quick time ; 
sending panic, terror, and dismay to the hearts of 
traitors ; battering down this stronghold of rebel- 
lion, and raising the "red, white, and blue" upon 
its ruins. General Burnside, with his patriotic 
crews, floats down to North Carolina, demolishes 
the bulwarks of treason upon Roanoke Island — 
achieves a most glorious victory, and again supplants 
the " rattle-snake flag" with "the emblem of liberty." 
But, oh ! how our hearts were rejoiced; how many 
eyes were melted Avith tears of inexpressible gratitude, 
and how many knees were bended in thanlfuJness, 
when the news Avas con^rmcd that F'ort Donelson 
had fallen before the combined forces of General 
Grant ; that fifteen thousand Rebels, after all their 



56 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF 

boasts and threats, after raising the ^^blacJc flag,^^ were 
forced to haul it down" and unconditionally surrender 
themselves tcT those brave defenders of Constitution 
and Union ! 

This, my kind friends, doth strictly accord with 
the teachings of nature. This Rebellion in our land 
must be conquered, cost what it may. This Union 
must be preserved. Our posterity claim it. Tiie 
cause of humanity demands that it shall be perpet- 
uated from generation to generation, untarnished. 
All heaven demands that the American Republic be 
preserved. The times for concessions and compro- 
mises have all passed away. The hour for party 
gossip has flown, and mighty events are riding upon 
the breezes of each approaching moment. Our 
deluded countrymen must be rescued from the fetters 
of treason. Since reason has failed to accomplish 
this ; since tears and prayers have proved to be of no 
avail in reclaiming their hearts, no physical force 
necessary for their subjugation should be withheld 
for one moment. The sword and the cannon will 
reclaim them, Avhen all other expedients have failed. 
It is idle, now, for intelligent men to be continually 
harping upon the ConstitutionaUty of every act of this 
Government. It is vanity, it is jpresumj)tlon, to 
question the right of maii, to question the right of 
this nation, for self-j^reservation. This is the first law 
of nature. The rights and the duties of this govern- 



THE AMEEICAN UNION. 57 

meat now stand before us in pictures of living ligJit, 
which cannot be mistaken. All nature is proclaiming, 
in thunder-tones, from east to west, from north to 
south, from earth to heaven ; from the mountains 
and valleys, and from all the stars in the firmament, 
comes one continual admonition : Preserve the xlmer- 
ican Union; suppress this infamous Rebellion, O 
ye sons of America ! Yes, 'tis our duty; 'twould be 
just ; 'twould be pleasing in the sight of the Omnis- 
cient One, himself, to see our national honor vindi- 
cated before the world, — to see traitors brought to 
justice, and rebellion subdued, though every Southern 
city be laid in ashes, and that whole country de- 
vastated; though the rivers should run with blood; 
though ei/'ery bondman be set free; and though the 
entire race of traitors and rebels be exterminated 
from the face of the globe! For they have per- 
formed acts of cowardice, of meanness and cruelty, 
too vile for rational beings. They have been the 
repeated authors of crimes, too black to be regis- 
tered against savages and barbarians! They have 
even allied with " the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warflire is an undistinguished 
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions," 
and have brought them forth to tomahawk, scalp, 
and mangle the innocent, with impunity I Would 
to God that I had tlie voice of an angel, that 
I might make one speech for my country — one do- 



58 INDESTKUCTIBILITY OF 

fence for the cause of liberty and the rights of 
humanity ! Oh that I could only depict the height 
and depth of the horrors and infamy, which must be 
engendered in this detestable and da7nnable secession 
and rebellion ! 'Twould certainly cause weeping 
among the angelic hosts of the celestial worlds ! But 
I feel my inability to do justice to so grave a subject. 
May God hasten the day, wdien wars and rumors 
of wars shall have passed away ; when rebellion and 
treason shall have been wiped from the face of our 
country ; when the " Southern Confederacy " shall be 
numbered among the things that existed only in the 
days of infamous rebels ; when the old palmetto 
trees of South Carolina shall wave a hearty welcome 
and cheerful submission to the old "star-spangled 
banner" and the Constitution of the Union ; when the 
" ancient dominion " shall ofier tears of repentant 
regret for the assassination of Ellsworth and the 
slaughter of the gallant Baker; wdieu the blood 
of Lyon shall have cleansed Missouri from all 
disloyalty ; wdien Tennessee shall have made ample 
restitution for the wrongs inflicted upon her loyal 
citizens, and the imprisonment of that patriotic 
editor, — Parson Brownlow. Yes, may that day 
speedily come, when the cotton fields of Mississippi 
and Louisiana, of Alabama and Georgia, shall blos- 
som wdth intelligence and patriotism; when free 
schools and free sj^eech shall be inaugurated and 



THE AMERICAN UNION. 59 

]}rotected^ tbroiiglioiit the length and breadth of 
our land; and when men, everywhere, shall be 
taught to act from principle and reason. Then will 
humanity be supremely blest ; then will the despotic 
nations of the world, while filled with admiration, 
tremble at the commands of this great and glorious 
Kepublic, and fully realize the mdestructihility of the 
American Union, 



^ 







'^^^fetje.:*ilil 



